Some tweaking is needed on both sides of the ball, but I can't say that I'm disappointed with either the offense or the defense.

Hopefully all the gloom and doom'ers that proclaimed our run defense too weak, and our secondary too bad, will shut-up.

Great way to start a new season. We're contenders folks. Anytime you have Brady and Belichick at the helm, you're a contender. Maybe people will realize now, that we're contenders, and maybe people will realize that we have a young, athletic, and gooddefense.

I have to imagine the D intentionally played softer the second half. They proved themselves first half. Palmer made a lot plays on the run and Ocho Cinco kept them in it. Overall our D looks F'in awesome.Posted by themightypatriotz

I agree. 390 yds allowed is f'ing "awsome". Of course Denvers' amazing D held the Bungles to what, 200 yds in the first game last year? LOL, and of course, any yds Cincy did get this game was due to Pats playing soft in the second half.

The excuse meter is pretty high already for you guys I see. Good win though, on the offensive side of the ball the Pats look top 5 again. And good ol' Bill even held his shorts and didn't throw a last minute garbage touchdown so everyone would oooh and ahhh over another blowout.

In Response to Re: Pre-Game Thread Cinn vs NE : I agree. 390 yds allowed is f'ing "awsome". Of course Denvers' amazing D held the Bungles to what, 200 yds in the first game last year? LOL, and of course, any yds Cincy did get this game was due to Pats playing soft in the second half. The excuse meter is pretty high already for you guys I see. Good win though, on the offensive side of the ball the Pats look top 5 again. And good ol' Bill even held his shorts and didn't throw a last minute garbage touchdown so everyone would oooh and ahhh over another blowout. 10-6 or 11-5. I lean toward 11-5.Posted by Casportsfan

Some people are never happy unless we blank the opposing team, hold them to 5 yards of offense and get double digit picks.

I won't disagree with 11-5 though. I have them going 13-3 at best, 11-5 at the worst.

Since everyone's throwing out how the defense allowed so many yards there's another reason why it's so high. The Pats had a pick 6 and a kickoff return for a TD. If those don't happen the Pats offense is on the field longer and runs down the clock. It also puts the Bengals offense offense on the field more so they're going to have more yards.

The Pats won the turnover battle which is extremely important.

McCourty looks like a top CB already. Wow.

Is it just me or did Chung look like a monster out there? He was hitting hard and wrapping up tackles. He looked very good. Edit: Just checked his stats on NFL.com. He had 12 tackles and four assisted tackles.

In Response to Re: Pre-Game Thread Cinn vs NE : I agree. 390 yds allowed is f'ing "awsome". Of course Denvers' amazing D held the Bungles to what, 200 yds in the first game last year? LOL, and of course, any yds Cincy did get this game was due to Pats playing soft in the second half. The excuse meter is pretty high already for you guys I see. Good win though, on the offensive side of the ball the Pats look top 5 again. And good ol' Bill even held his shorts and didn't throw a last minute garbage touchdown so everyone would oooh and ahhh over another blowout. 10-6 or 11-5. I lean toward 11-5.Posted by Casportsfan

i don't think mighty made an excuse. yeah, they gave up alot of yardage in the second half, but it might have been part of a greater strategy by BB.

am i happy they gave up 419 yards? no. but the fact they were up 31-3, had a special teams TD and a pick 6, plus our offense was outstanding,shows we pretty much dominated

The offense produced, the defense flew around and held the Bengals to 3 points in the first half, and the special teams produced.

When we had a big lead, the defense kept everything in front of them and forced the Bengals to burn clock, and the offense finished the game.

Neither the offense, nor the defense were "spectacular", but they both did their job, and we got the win.

Butler looked great (aside from a few plays) and McCourty looks like a bona-fide starter.

I don't think the Bodden loss helps us, but I don't think it necessarily hurts either. Same goes for the Ty Warren injury. Gerard Warren, Mike Wright, Myron Pryor, and Ron Brace have all looked better than he did last year.

the patriots looked great, the dolphins looked like crap, the colts and raiders lost, now a jets loss would cap a great first week of football for the pats. 15 more to go, its as early as it gets, now lets get ready for week 2. go pats

Very good game today, with the offense looking dominant against a solid defense in the Bengals. Brady spread the ball out and Moss, Welker, Tate, Faulk, Hernandez, Gronk, Taylor, and Crumpler (called back) all had catches. Much better than the 2-3 who would be targeted last year. Also, this was with Edelman out. The running game looked solid, and it appears that the Pats could do fine riding Taylor and BJGE as the primary backs this season, should they stay healthy. Faulk also remains a weapon and an elite 3rd down back. I think Maroney will have a hard time seeing the field should this continue. The defense looked decent, and showed flashes of greatness against a very strong Bengals offense. This defense showed promise and should improve oer the course of the year. For now, the defense looks good enough to keep us in games, with the potential to be one of the better units in the game as the season goes on. Special teams looked terrific minus Ghostowski. Hopefully he turns it around as the season moves forward. Otherwise, Tate got a good chunk of yards on returns, and the coverage teams held the Bengals to very short returns. Solid game all around.

not just because we belong to a fanbase who love to disagree with each other, i ahve to say the opposite.

the d gave up yards and 24 pts, but i have to give them credit for forcing two turnovers, one of which resulted in a TD. thatw as missing last year. so in my book the d had a 14 pt game (gave up 24 pts, but got back 7 on guyton's int plus 3 pts on the missed fg after the fumble). i had really low expectations on this d, so i was really happy with the performance.

i set a 28 pt expectation for the o prior to the game (yes i am harder on the o), given all the new weapons. they scored 24 when they should have scored 31, with the short field after the fumble.

essentially, the d topped expectations and the o slightly disappointed.